


26082 Minutes

by litbynosun



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Demi Carlos is a good Carlos, Demiromantic Carlos, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 11:44:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7169663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/litbynosun/pseuds/litbynosun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wherein Carlos can't fall in love instantly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	26082 Minutes

i.  
Carlos had never believed in love at first sight. He also didn't believe in love at second sight, or even hundredth. Love, for him, was perhaps only found after 26092 minutes of thought.

Most people who had an interest in him lost it before that long.

He fell for his friends, multiple times. But those friends were sometimes straight ( _note to self_ : he wrote in his notebook, _straight boys are not worthy of your heart._ ) People fell for him, multiple times. They fell for his hair and his smile and his boundless curiosity.

Carlos? He didn't love them back.

ii.  
Cecil was nothing new, in the beginning. Carlos wished he _was_ new, if only because effusive praise was embarrassing but also very appealing. Carlos liked Cecil, liked him from the minute he met him, but as always, no matter how much he wished dopamine and serotonin would fire in his brain, they didn't.

Carlos held out hope. 

iii.  
Carlos's sister had tried to play matchmaker when they were younger, but mostly she just tried to set Carlos up with the boys _she_ had a crush on. 

Carlos tried to emulate her, here. 

_You're both enthusiastic_ he wrote in his notebook. _He loves his job. So do you. His formal speech is endearing, his descriptions worthy of a lab report.  
He is lonely. You are lonely. ___

__iv.  
In many ways Cecil was not like the others. This was one of them: he did not give up._ _

Carlos was half upset, for various reasons. The first was simply that he did not want Cecil to be hurt, and the longer this … infatuation? … went on the more likely it was that this one-sided romance would end painfully. Another was that Carlos was debilitatingly sensitive to second-hand embarrassment, and goodness did Cecil inspire that in him. 

Half of Carlos was very pleased. 

v.  
It had been a year; the allotted number of minutes was fast approaching. 

Carlos was not thinking of this when he visited the underground city. In retrospect, he wasn't thinking much at all. 

When he did think again, when he was able to think again, he heard Cecil's voice on the radio, and heard his own mind say, _yes, this is what I've been waiting for_. 

__vi.  
His speech about innocence was as much about himself as it was about Cecil and Night Vale._ _


End file.
